(1) Public notice
of every draft permit determination regarding an individual permit shall be
circulated in a manner designed to inform interested and potentially affected
persons of the proposed discharge and of the proposed determination to issue or
deny a permit for the proposed discharge, as follows:
(a) Notice shall be circulated within the
geographical area of the proposed discharge; such circulation may include any
or all of the following, as directed by the department:
(i) Posting by the applicant for a period of
thirty days in the post office, public library, and public places of the
municipality nearest the premises of the applicant in which the effluent source
is located;
(ii) Posting by the
applicant for a period of thirty days near the entrance of the applicant's
premises and nearby places;
(iii)
Publishing by the applicant, at his own cost within such time as the director
shall prescribe, through a notice form provided by the department, in major
local newspapers of general circulation serving the area in which the discharge
occurs: Provided, That if an applicant fails to publish notice within thirty
days of the time prescribed by the director, the department may publish the
notice and bill the applicant for the cost of publication;
(iv) Publishing by the applicant of paid
advertisements;
(v) Publishing by
the department of news releases or newsletter articles.
(b) Notice shall be mailed to any person upon
request; and
(c) The department
shall add the name of any person upon request to a mailing list to receive
copies of notices within the state or within a certain geographical
area.
(2) The department
shall provide a period of not less than thirty days following the date of the
public notice during which time interested persons may submit their written
views on a draft permit determination. All written comments submitted during
the thirty-day comment period shall be retained by the department and
considered in the formulation of its final determination with respect to the
application. The period for comment may be extended at the discretion of the
department.
(3) The department
shall prepare the contents of the public notice, which shall, at a minimum,
summarize the following:
(a) Name, address,
phone number of agency issuing the public notice;
(b) Name and address of each applicant, and
if different, of the facility or activity to be regulated;
(c) Each applicant's activities or operations
which result in a discharge (e.g., municipal waste treatment, steel
manufacturing, drainage from mining activities);
(d) Name of waterway to which each discharge
is made and the location of each discharge on the waterway, indicating whether
such discharge is a new or an existing discharge;
(e) The tentative determination to issue or
deny a permit for the discharge;
(f) The procedures for the formulation of
final determinations, including the thirty-day comment period required by
subsection (2) of this section and any other means by which interested persons
may comment upon those determinations; and
(g) Address and phone number of state
premises at which interested persons may obtain further information.
(4) The department shall provide
copies of permit applications, draft permit determinations, and final
permits.
(5) The department shall
notify the applicant and persons who have submitted written comments or
requested notice of the final permit decision. This notification shall include
response to comments received and reference to the procedures for contesting
the decision.